‘We made a mistake’ – Arrivabene

2016 Canadian Grand Prix

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Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene admits that Ferrari made the wrong strategy call after Lewis Hamilton beat Sebastian Vettel to victory in Canada.

Vettel had led the race at the start after leaping both the Mercedes before turn one, but the team opted to pit under an early virtual safety car and switch to a two stop strategy.

“We overestimated the degradation of the tyres,” explains Arrivabene. “This is the reason why we called [Vettel] in and this was the wrong decision.”

Lewis Hamilton managed to hold off the Ferrari after a 46 lap final stint on the soft tyres. Vettel got within five seconds of the Mercedes at one stage, but a series of small braking errors scuppered the German’s chances of challenging Hamilton.

“We don’t have to make the story bigger than what it is,” says Arrivabene. “Today we made a mistake, but in other races everyone makes mistakes. The big one is when you lose for this thing.”

Vettel’s second place moves him from fifth to third in the drivers’ championship.

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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30 comments on “‘We made a mistake’ – Arrivabene”

  1. When Vettel pitted the guys on NBCSN quickly rattled off his lap times and questioned why they had brought him in as his time were consistent and fast. I guess Ferrari didn’t have access to the same information.

    1. They made a split second decision. If there was any doubt about doing a one-stop, the best time to stop would be under the safety car. I have a feeling Ferrari is looking more at the data then at the track. Their first concern should have been Lewis and what he does and take a bit of a reactionary stance. Of course it’s easy in hindsight, but at least they should’ve split up the strategies.

      1. @thetick Everyone that’s talking about hindsight should look at the data again and again and watch more f1, watch what the great teams do. RB made a mistake in Monaco, perhaps even 2 mistakes, but above all, RB would have won had they made no mistake on the pitstop. What’s the last time you saw RedBull make a strategy mistake? Never, when was the last time Merc made a strategy mistake? Monaco 2015. When was the last time Ferrari didn’t make a strategy error?

        No team on the pace would give up a lead, for an alternative strategy. These days with no refuelling and the undercut factor, you are always, always going to look at who’s trying to undercut you, you try to go as long as you can but if the car behind pits you have to pit the next lap, unless it’s far to early or you are going to be stuck on traffic, that’s your strategy for any race, if it’s a 2 or 3 stopper you just make sure you undercut on the last pitstop, it’s really simple no hindsight needed.

        A longer VSC would have helped but it would still be the wrong strategy, regardless of the outcome.

        1. didn’t ricciardo gave up the lead in spain? A tactical blunder from RB?

          1. Well, RB still won in the end so it’s debatable.

    2. Every broadcaster and TV spectator saw that it was a mistake, but not them.

  2. At least the ‘Red Bull are best-of-the-rest’ talk can be put to bed.

  3. The commentator on Schwiss television also predicted the early Ferrari pitstop to cause Vettel to loose the race, unless some miracle would happen.

  4. Arrivabene out!!! The buffoonery needs to stop.

  5. Pitting under the VSC was clever, and it probably resulted in Vettel driving the Grand Prix quicker than on a one-stop, but it gave track position to Mercedes and let Hamilton run his own pace, which in the end proved too strong for Ferrari.

    I did think when Hamilton pitted that Mercedes should have pitted him 5 laps earlier, when he still had a 10-second lead instead of a 5-second one, to try to beat Ferrari with a two-stopper, but Hamilton’s final stint was very strong. First saving tyres, then matching Vettel on his 13-lap newer tyres.

    1. Yeah Ferrari outsmarted themselves again. Sad part is that they are satisfied with it and Vettel commenting about the hindsight people can have – well, we have the hindsight and they have track position with tires doing good laptimes – what is more important?

  6. Michael Brown (@)
    12th June 2016, 21:47

    If the VSC lasted longer than it did, the gap to Hamilton would have been less. I think that’s what Ferrari was betting on.

    1. I agree. Damn those marshals.

    2. @mbr-9
      It was clear that the VSC would not last because Button parked his car right next to an exit, when i saw it first i thought they would bring yellow flags because the car could be easily cleared off the track

  7. O RLY?

    They didn’t need to be this aggresive while in the lead, with the pace to keep eating laps and resist ahead.

  8. Once again, Ferrari have strategically let its drivers down. Especially in this year of F1 where overtaking and following another car is so difficult, I can’t seem to understand why Ferrari don’t see that track position is king. In a straight line, Ferrari are there or thereabouts compared to the Merc, and as we saw in Spain with Verstappen, all you really require is good drive off certain corners to keep in front.

  9. Vettel might’ve won the race if the VSC stayed out just 5-10 seconds longer, which I assume is what Ferrari was thinking as well.

  10. Mistake and also bad luck, the VSC period was a few seconds too short for them

  11. They just weren’t quick enough, especially in the last stint. I think even if Vettel didn’t pit he would have been overtaken eventually.

  12. People keep saying Vettels 2 stop was a mistake but given how Vettel seemed to struggle on his soft tyres as it was (4 times he messed up the last chicane was it?) I’m not sure a longer soft stint would have helped him.

    Also staying out on the ultras for the one stop strategy would have left him extremely vunerable to the undercut from Hamilton anyway. I think it is no way a given that Vettel would have won even with a different strategy.

    1. It’s not a given, but Vettel would have an actual chance to try if he’d 1 stopped.

    2. When you say “people”, you mean Arrivebene. It was a mistake, and Ferrari have accepted it.

      1. No, when I say people I mean people. If I meant Arrivebene I would have said so.

    3. @Martin
      “the one stop strategy would have left him extremely vunerable to the undercut from Hamilton”
      +1

  13. Rosberg had a huge pace advantage over Verstappen, but look how difficult it was for him to overtake. Hamilton would have found it difficult to overtake Vettel, and his tyres would have suffered for it.

    1. Traffic has been the only weakness of the W07 so far, i still cannot believe it how they handed track position to Lewis when Vettel’s lap times were just as good

    2. Rosberg also had to manage his fuel, and wasn’t able to fully attack Verstappen… then when he did, he got past, and promptly made a u-turn.

  14. Ben (@scuderia29)
    13th June 2016, 2:05

    3 times this year ferrari have thrown a race away, track position is everything! you just don’t give track position to a mercedes and gamble on overtaking them when their tyres are old, the merc is the fastest car out their and YOU NEED TO BE AHEAD ON TRACK, I just can’t understand any of ferraris tactical decisions, I’m so frustrated, rosberg couldn’t pass a red bull, and there’s no reason Hamilton could have passed a quicker ferrari, they need to address who is making these awful decisions

    1. @scuderia29
      Don’t worry mate, with Marchionne in charge don’t be surprised to hear some changes in the near future in Ferrari’s pit wall

  15. In hindsight this mistake by Ferrari was even worse than the mistake they did back when they pitted Alonso too early focussing on keeping him in front of Webber, and Vettel then won the race and the WDC because Alonso couldn’t pass Petrov in the Renault. On that occasion Ferrari at least had an excuse: The tyre data seemed to confirm that they were degrading and they were afraid that Webber would pick off the drivers in front of him one by one as he had been able to in some previous races.
    This time I can’t see any plausible excuses, other than … ? Of course You can’t claim that this mistake will cost them the WDC, but being F1, I would expect the teams to have some of the best racing strategists out there. Yesterday any mediocre TV commentator was better, which is a disgrace for Ferrari.

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